Here are a few of the stories I’ve found interesting over the past couple days
Supreme Court of Canada Dismisses Telecom Company Appeal Over Internet Rates
In 2019 the CRTC lowered what is known as the wholesale rates on Internet Service Proviers. Wholesale rates are what the smaller providers like Teksavvy pay Rogers, Shaw, Bell, and Telus to lease/rent capacity on their existing infrasturcutre to provide internet service. The larger companies lodged complaints with the CRTC and took the CRTC and the Federal Government to court in an attempt to get the change reversed. A Federal court ruled against the larger companies, and the Supreme Court has now upheld that ruling.
The lower wholesale rates have been meant for smaller providers to offer internet services cheaper, as they have to pay less to lease that capacity. It is one of several steps by the Federal Government over the years that attempt to reduce the price of both landline and wireless internet in Canada.
Bioware Cancels Anthem NEXT
Not a good look for Bioware Edmonton. Anthem, an online multiplayer game launched just over a year ago, is effectively dead. The game launched to universally terrible reviews from both critics and gamers, and was a very, very poor launch for the EA owned developer. Bioware promised updates, and eventually said they would rebuild Anthem from the ground up in an effort called Anthem NEXT. After a year of working on Anthem NEXT, the company has pulled the plug on development, shifting the studio’s resources to its Dragon Age and Mass Effect properties.
Anthem isn’t going away as of yet, and the game will remain as is for the forseeable future, but just how long EA decides to continue running the game is unclear.
https://www.pcgamer.com/anthem-next-cancelled/
Parker Solar Probe Captures Stunning Image of Venus
The Parker Solar Probe, which as the name implies is on its way to study the Sun from closer than any other man made spacecraft, has been swinging past Venus, using the planet’s gravity to help get it on its proper orbit around the Sun. Last year’s flyby of the far side of Venus discovered something unepected. The camera on the spacecraft actually managed to capture surface details, which was a surprise because Venus’ atmosphere is so thick that the surface cannot normally be seen from outside the atmosphere.
The Parker Solar Probe is doing another similar flyby later this year, and scientists are prioritizing more images of the far side of Venus to see if more images like this can be capture.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/25/22299833/parker-solar-sun-probe-nasa-photo-venus
YouTube Adding “Supervised Experiences” For Greater Parental Controls
I’m not a parent, and I can’t even imagine how difficult it is to monitor and control what kids do online. Companies have made tools and apps for this for years with varying success, and Google is out with a new option. Separate from its dedicated YouTube Kids app, new “Supervised Experience” controls aims to allow parents to restrict their children from watching various types of video content on YouTube. These are also flexible, allowing restrictions to be lifted as children get older.
I obviously won’t be making use of this feature, but I do appreciate companies making these efforts, and hope it works as well as it can.
Google Maps Finally Gets Dark Mode Support on Android
This is a long time coming, and very, very welcome. Google has started rolling out dark mode support for Google Maps on Android, years after it started offering that support in the operating system, and in other Google Apps. This should hopefully cut down on the number of times I’m blinded by a bright white map screen when looking something up when it is dark.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/02/google-maps-for-android-officially-gets-dark-mode-support/
Pokemon is Now a 25 Year Old Franchise
This is interesting to me only for the fact that I’m having trouble wrapping my head aroudn the fact that Pokemon has been around for 25 years.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/24/22297819/pokemon-25th-anniversary-nintendo-game-boy-pikachu